Friday, August 31, 2012

Anime Month Begins Monday



The Invasian 2: Total Destruction Anime Happy Month

My friends, will you come with me on a little journey? Starting on Monday, I am going to be delving into the world of anime. I haven’t done a theme month in a while and I thought that since I’ve seen such a good boy that I should do something totally self-indulgent. And hey, the last I checked, that’s what blogs are supposed to be about, right? So yeah, I am going to do a big old belly flop into a very deep pool. This is my little journey and the only condition is that I want to watch stuff that’s roughly 15 or more years old. I guess you could call September 2012 my old school anime month.

Since I was 14 years old, anime has been almost as important to me as horror films. Actually during the late 90s and early 00s, anime was THE most important thing in my life. There is a lot of good stuff out there nowadays but back in the day, any newly discovered titles were sacred. Totally desperate, I would sit through all kinds of mediocre and sometimes terrible crap just to get a glimpse of some hyper kinetic Japanese drawings! For this month, I plan on focusing on stuff from those dark times (the 80s/90s) and perhaps go as far back as the 60s and 70s to the real old school of what we used to call "Japanimation". Heck, I might even get to something made in this century.

One thing I am painfully aware of is that anime is not for everyone. Some people hate it because they’ve seen the garbage (Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon*, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc.). Some people hate it because they have met one too many anime fans. (FYI: Anime fans are a subsection of nerd that is great in number but is also the most despised because let’s face it, they’re a silly group of people.) Some people hate it because it’s a huge industry with more genres and subgenres than you can shake a wooden sword at and they don’t have a clue where to start. And some people hate it because they just do. I am definitely not going to convert anyone this month or even try. I’m just hoping that some of you will be entertained while I do my thang.

There are lots of cheesy horror anime titles out there and I assure you, those are high priority. However, there are so many more sci-fi, action, and sci-fi-horror-action hybrid** titles in the anime abyss that I feel like I’d be missing out if I just tried to do horror exclusively.  I’ll be hitting up some serious giant robots too but avoiding the Robotech and the Gundam if I can. So be here on Monday if you want to witness the beginning of a whole month of me breaking the nerd barrier or puncturing the nerd ovum wall or losing your respect or some other metaphor.

*I can’t lie; I loves me some Sailor Moon. Deal with it.
**Japanese animators are brilliant genre blenders.

8 comments:

  1. Are you going to hit Studio Ghibli hard this month (based on your Castle of Cagliostro header), or concentrate on horror/sci-fi anime?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Ron - Ghibli will get some attention. I am going to try to hit lots of genres but there will be a lot of sci-fi.

    ReplyDelete
  3. For the love of god if you haven't seen it, Space Cobra!! The link if for the manga but they got the series (and movie) all up in that shit too. ARM GUNS, SPACE OPERA, SPACE LADIES!! SPAAAACE!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cobra#Anime_film.2C_Cobra:_Space_Adventure

    --Sam

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm only really familiar with Satoshi Kon (RIP).

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Justin - Satoshi Kon was a fucking genius.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. It's that thing where cartoon characters get naked and explode in a shower of blood and sometimes entrails.

      Delete